2012

George Jones and Glen Campbell will be honored with lifetime achievement awards next year. During a special ceremony on Feb. 11 — one day before the 2012 Grammy Awards, which will air on CBS — their contributions will be acknowledged by the Recording Academy in front of five other honorees and an invitation only crowd.

Once upon a time cruise ships were a destination for country stars with more grey in their hair than styling wax. Not any longer. Add Rascal Flatts to the list of contemporary artists with a cruise ship date in 2012.

Keith Urban‘s recent throat surgery went well enough that the country superstar is already scheduling tour dates in 2012. Urban recently posted four dates to the calendar at his official website, beginning with a Feb. 11 show in San Antonio, Texas.

Next year will be a big one for Brad Paisley. In a recent interview with USA Today, the CMT ‘Artists of the Year’ honoree revealed that in addition to his huge Camobunga! Tour, he’ll also be working on a new album. 2012 is slated to be a year of “intense creativity.”

Good news for fans of Jerrod Niemann: The singer-songwriter is putting the finishing touches on his next album, which is set to be released in 2012. “We’ve got every single song recorded … now we’re just working on getting them to sound professional,” Niemann tells Taste of Country.

The Band Perry will make yet another high-profile appearance, this time at Dick Clark’s ‘New Year’s Rockin’ Eve’ with Ryan Seacrest on Saturday, Dec. 31 on ABC. The event marks the 40th anniversary of Dick Clark’s New Year’s special and will feature actress Jenny McCarthy broadcasting from Times Square and Fergie reporting from the parties in Los Angeles.

In the early fall of 2010, Tim McGraw submitted his final version of a new record called ‘Emotional Traffic’ to Curb Records. The first single, ‘Felt Good on My Lips,’ dropped soon after, but no word came out about an album release date. Then, just hours after a court ruled this week (Nov. 30) that McGraw was free to sign with another label, Curb let the second single, ‘Better Than I Used to Be,’

The cat is out of the bag as to which major country artist Lauren Alaina will be hitting the road with in 2012. Starting in January, Alaina will link up with Jason Aldean on the next leg of his My Kinda Party Tour.

It’s that time again, country fans! The 2012 season of ‘American Idol’ will kick off this January. It’ll be the show’s 11th season and let’s hope that this season follows the same trajectory as the last, when the final two contestants were country artists! Will Scotty McCreery‘s heir apparent make it to the top? Will we find our next Lauren Alaina? It’s certainly an exciting prospect, since countr

Baby name site Nameberry.com released its predictions for 2012, and if you thought the noun trend — like naming kids after apples and other objets — was weird, just wait until you get a load of the hot new adjective fad.

Country music’s modern day outlaw, Eric Church, will be burning up the road once again in 2012 on his newly announced Blood, Sweat and Beers Tour. The trek will launch on Jan. 19 in Fort Smith, Ark. and will run through May, covering over 50 dates along the way.

If anybody is looking forward to getting a start in 2012, it’s Billy Currington! The singer just announced he will embark on his very first headlining tour in the new year, taking along his Universal Music Group labelmates David Nail and Kip Moore.